I bowl in a daytime ladies league at Gilroy Bowl and along with
many others, we have recently been faced with a quandary bestowed
on us by the city.
I bowl in a daytime ladies league at Gilroy Bowl and along with many others, we have recently been faced with a quandary bestowed on us by the city. It’s the new two hour parking limit downtown. If you have ever bowled on a league, you would know you can’t bowl the three required games in two hours. This is a problem. Are we expected to dash outside to move our cars while our teammates wait? During a tournament game we can’t exit the building and leave people waiting while we drive around looking for another space that might be as far as two or three blocks away. Some of the ladies I bowl with are senior citizens and the prospect of walking and carrying their bowling equipment two or three blocks isn’t very practical or comfortable. It’s an inconvenience to say the least.
I wish the good folks at the city would have considered what types of businesses are affected by this two hour parking limit. It’s a hard hit to our good old bowling alley and not much of a thanks in return for patiently toughing it out and tolerating the financial strain during all of the road construction last year. Gilroy Bowl struggled to survive the street renovations and managed to stay open waiting with anticipation for the new street parking only to be slapped with restrictions that affect their livelihood. I don’t see how Gilroy Bowl can survive without league bowling.
The fact is, two hours simply isn’t enough time for a pleasant afternoon downtown even if you’re not bowling. This isn’t enough time for a leisurely stroll through all of the antique stores. Isn’t the point of breathing new life into the downtown area to attract people? Why would you then give those people only two hours to get in and get out?
I think this problem can be amended with a simple solution. Why can’t the City extend the parking limit time to three hours? This would allow shoppers to shop and dine, and it would still prevent people from abandoning their cars for extended periods of time. It would also allow bowlers to league bowl in the daytime, although sadly, those of us who might stick around for a meal with our teammates after the game will no longer be able to do so at Gilroy Bowl (without moving your car, at which point you might as well go someplace else), but it’s an improvement on the unrealistic time limit currently posted.
I don’t know who came up with this two hour time frame, but it really was thoughtless and needs to be changed.
Sincerely, Lydia Eden-Irwin and “The Coffee Breakers:” Bev Aissaa, Kay Brown, Dawn Griswold, Peggy Soda, Dolores Corrales, Peggy Hill, Margaret Enger, Sue Dibble, Peggy Scudero, Louise Wadge, Suzanne Lopez, Kathy Misenheimer, Norma Rymers, Pamela Nelson, Anne Boykin, Dorothy Rizzuto, Doris Kropff, Peggy Seitzler, Laurie Perez, Arlene Livorsi, Irene Mellow, Rhoda Manzo and Shelby Martensen.
